The subject of women in the military has never been taken terribly seriously in films and television programmes probably because they are still mostly written by men who can't think of women soldiers without getting over-excited.

When women soldiers do turn up in movies, they are mostly silly or sexy; there is rarely a serious attempt at a realistic portrayal of what it must be like to be a woman in the army.

Our Girl (Sunday, BBC1, 9pm) is a decent stab at changing that. It may be written, produced and directed by men, but it never once sexualises the central character Molly Dawes (played by Lacey Turner from EastEnders); it just gets on with telling the story of Molly and her time in Afghanistan.

It also does it with a kind of naked directness that was probably inspired by The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar winner set during the Iraq War, which is really the only serious way to tackle the subject of war and conflict.

The first episode did not obsess over the issue of equality either, even though it's an issue that shouldn't be avoided. The other day, I was at a meeting of some senior soldiers in Edinburgh and they told me that the army does change but that it just takes a little longer than the rest of society.

It's why women can join the army but are still excluded from certain roles.

They can serve but, in some cases, cannot fight.

In the case of the fictional Molly Dawes, this rule means she can be on the frontline but only as a medic, which led to an extraordinary scene in the first episode in which she came to the aid of her fellow soldier Smurf (played by Iwan Rheon from Misfits).

Smurf had been shot through the leg by an insurgent and it was Molly's job to keep him alive until a helicopter could get him away to safety.

As blood leaked out on the sand, the camera didn't linger on the details (for once) but instead, the camera pointed at the emotions of the soldiers and the stress that Molly was under.

And it seemed to get the tone right too: soldiers will never tell you how they are feeling; you have to search for the evidence in their faces and their actions.

But was it enough? Our Girl was solid enough (and the recreation of Afghanistan in, among other places, a quarry in Leighton Buzzard was impressive) but there was no context, no attempt to tell us where Molly fitted into the bigger picture.

In the last few weeks, a US-led force has again been involved in military action in Iraq, and Britain is on the verge of joining in, but other than a brief mention of an attempt to win hearts and minds (by blowing up bodies), Molly might as well have been a nurse in any difficult situation.

The character was undoubtedly better than most military women in films and television, but Our Girl was not as good as the best films and television about war.

One day we might get both - a strong female character in a good film about war - but like change in the army, we'll probably have to wait for it.